BOULDER, Colo. — Paloma Atkins has been baking her whole life. Growing up, her grandmother would visit and make cinnamon rolls, sparking a love of baking from a very young age.
"You can just kind of not think about like any of your other issues and just kind of bake something," Atkins said.
But her life got more complicated at age 11.
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"I had lost a significant amount of weight and so we began to do… just a bunch of blood tests," Atkins said.
She was diagnosed with celiac disease.
Dr. Edwin Liu, director of the Children's Hospital Colorado Center for Celiac Disease, treated Atkins. He said the treatment for celiac is simple — but it's not easy, especially for an aspiring baker.
"Right now the only treatment for celiac disease is the gluten-free diet," Liu said.
Celiac disease can have serious consequences if left untreated, Liu said, particularly in children.
"In kids, it can lead to micronutrient deficiency, and it can affect their growth and development," Liu said.
For Atkins, the diagnosis hit close to home in the kitchen.
"I tried to make chocolate chip cookies that were gluten free," Atkins said. "I took them out, and they were like completely flat, like one giant cookie pancake, and I just started crying on the spot… I almost felt like I had lost like a little bit of my identity," she said.
After a three-week break to process the diagnosis, she was back at it — mastering the art of gluten-free baking through years of trial, error and determination. Now 16, she is sharing her recipes with the world.
"When she can share these recipes and show other kids how you can take control of the situation and all the options that you have, I think a lot of kids can take a lot of joy out of that," Liu said.
Atkins plans to publish her gluten-free recipes on a website for free.
"It can maybe make some family who's just been diagnosed a little bit happier because they made you know some pretzels that they didn't think that was possible being gluten free," Atkins said. "It's just really nice to bring people a little bit of joy," she said.
Check out her recipe for gluten-free soft pretzels below.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
